Category: Invited guests

Regular contributor to The New York Review of Books; he has also written for The New Yorker (from 1971 to 1992), Foreign Affairs (New York), Commentaire (Paris), Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Politica Exterior(Madrid), etc. For a quarter century he wrote a political column for The International Herald Tribune in Paris. Author of nine books on American foreign policy, international relations, nationalism, political romanticism and utopianism, etc. The most recent of these books, The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of American Foreign Policy, dealing with the present American crisis, was published in 2010 by Walker & Co. in New York.

Member of Parliament since 1988 and member of several Knesset committees including the Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, until June 2007.Born in Morocco, he emigrated to Israel at the age of four. He was elected Mayor of his town Sderot in 1983, bringing the left back to power. He publicly voiced his support for an independent Palestinian State and led peace-promoting initiatives between residents of the town and their neighbors in the Gaza Strip.

Born on 16th of February 1954, His Excellency Mr. PARK Heung-shin Graduated from the Department of International Relations at Seoul National University in Seoul in 1976. During his career, he also received training sessions at the National Management School (ENA, Ecole nationale d’administration, Promotion Montaigne) in France. Appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the French Republic, Mr. PARK Heung-Shin presented his credentials on January 15, 2010. He was awarded Commander, 1st Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland.

OECD Deputy Secretary-General since 2007 and Chief Economist since 2009. Prior to joining the OECD, he was Professor of Economics at the University La Sapienza of Rome, and Director of the Fondazione Italianieuropei, a policy think-tank focusing on economic and social issues. He was the Italian Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (2001-2005). He has been a consultant to the World Bank, European Commission, European Central Bank. He has a degree in Economics from the University of Rome. He has published widely in international academic journals and is the author and editor of several books.

Chairman, Chamber of Commerce and Industry France India, since 2009. He founded the India Trade Centre in 2007. He worked in the high-tech and internet industry, holding managing positions for technology leaders such as Netapp and Enition. He started in the luxury goods industry, heading several demanding positions, from Marketing to Business development, within famous brands (Dior, Celine, Lagerfeld, etc.) which he helped develop on the American continent. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Sorbonne University and a Master’s Degree in Science and Techniques from Dauphine University, Paris.

Chief Research and Strategy Officer of Microsoft Corp. He serves on the U.S. National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee and the Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Mundie has spent much of his career building startups in various fields. He has served as Microsoft’s principal technology-policy liaison to the U.S. and foreign governments. Mundie holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in information theory and computer science from Georgia Tech.

6th Secretary General of the League of Arab States. He was Director of the Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to India. In 1990, he became the Permanent Representative of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the United Nations, New York and the year after, Minister for Foreign Affairs. He graduated from Cairo University, LLB Faculty of Law.

Director of the Pharos Observatory of cultural and religious pluralism and Coordinator of the political group of the OSCE Minsk Process on Ukraine. Former EU Special Representative for Central Asia and for the crisis in Georgia. He began his diplomatic career in 1971. He served at the French Embassy in Moscow. He also served as Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the French Republic. He was Ambassador to the Russian Federation (1992-1996) and was also accredited, while in residence in Moscow, to Georgia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and to Kyrgyzstan. He served as Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China and then to the Holy See. He is a graduate of the Institut d’études politiques in Paris, of the Paris Assas Faculty of Law and of the École nationale d’administration.

Researcher at Ifri and co-editor of its annual report, RAMSES. He is a graduate of IEP-Paris and of the École nationale d’administration (ENA). As a diplomat, he has held various administrative posts relating to the European Construction. He has taught at Sciences-Po Paris and in several universities. He is the author of many books and articles on international relations, geopolitics, global governance and the construction of Europe. His last two books are: L’histoire du monde pour les Nuls (The World History for Dummies), First-Editions, Paris; 2010; L’histoire de l’Europe pour les Nuls (The European History for Dummies), First-Editions, Paris; 2013.

High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain (2004-2010), he also served as Director of the Institute of Cooperation with the Arab World (1991-1993) and was appointed Director General of Foreign Policy for Africa and the Middle East (1993-1996). He held the position of Spain’s Ambassador in Israel (1996). He was the EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process (1996-2003). From 2010 to 2011 he joined parliamentary activities and ran to be elected Director-General of the FAO. In January 2012, he joined the team of the Global Dry Land Alliance in Qatar promoting this international treaty for food security. From 2012 to 2013 he was member of the High-level Advisory panel of the president of the 67th UN General Assembly. Prior to his appointment as High-Representative, Mr. Moratinos was the Honorary Chairman of the CIRSD Board of Advisers (Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development), Senior Advisor of Sustainable Development Solutions Network of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, member of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Honorary President of REDS, the SDSN Spanish network.

Marcus Wallenberg Professor of International Business and Finance Georgetown University; non-Resident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is consultant to the United Nations, to governments in Asia and Latin America, and to the international business field. He served as Senior Economic Advisor to the Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State. He received his PhD from Harvard in 1971.

Head of the Middle East/Maghreb Program at Ifri.  Mansouria Mokhefi holds a Master’s degree from New York University and a Doctorate from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. She formerly taught at New York University and at the Institut des Langues et Civilisations Orientales. She co-authored a book on Le Maghreb et son Sud (Editions du CNRS, 2012).

Senior Advisor at Ifri, member of the Cercle des économistes and President of Société d’économie politique. He served as Head of Economic Studies at Ifri, member of the Conseil d’analyse économique, Minister-Financial Counselor to the Embassy of France in the United States (2001-2006). He held various positions in the AXA Group (1992-2000). He served as Economic Advisor to then-Prime Minister Michel Rocard (1988-1991). He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and holds a PhD in economics from the University Paris I.

Chairman of the Federation of French Overseas companies (Fedom), President of the Franco-British Council. A member of parliament from 1993 to 2017, he was spokesman for the Republican group on the Finance Committee, special rapporteur for the budget for ecology and energy, transport, agriculture, Chairman of the friendship group with Russia, Vice-Chairman of the friendship group with the United Kingdom. He was Secretary for Overseas Territories in 2007. He is an associate member of the Conseil général de l’économie, a member of the editorial boards of « Commentaire » and « Annales des Mines ». He is a general engineer in the Corps des Mines, and he graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Total. He joined Total in 1974 where he served in several positions in the Group’s Finance Department and Exploration & Production division. He became President of Total Middle East in 1995. In 2000, he was appointed Senior Executive Vice President of the Exploration & Production division of the newly created TotalFinaElf group which was renamed Total in 2003. In 2002, he became President of its Exploration & Production division. In May 2006, he was appointed a member of the Board of Directors of Total and in 2007, he became Chief Executive Officer of Total, chairing its Executive Committee. He graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, a French business school.

Egyptian Senator and former member of Parliament. She is an Advisor to the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, and is a Distinguished Lecturer in the Political Science Department at the American University in Cairo. She has been a member of the National Council for Human Rights since 2012 and an Advisor to the Minister of Labour and Immigration responsible for Egyptians abroad since 2011. She was a member of the World Bank’s Council of Advisors for the Middle East & North Africa Region. She was an Advisor to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in 2012 and served on the Committee for Policy Development (UN, 2001-2004). She was awarded a fellowship at MIT in 2016. She is a graduate of Harvard University. She is a prolific writer in English, French and Arabic. She is an Officier de la Légion d’honneur.

Yacin is the PwC Financial Services Advisory Leader for France and member of the EMEA FS Leadership Team. He has significant experience advising FS companies on risk and performance management transformations. He worked for Global universal banks and insurance companies as well as for specialized players in the investment banking, retail banking and specialized finance. Before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers, he worked for an international investment bank in London and for a Global Audit & Consulting Firm in London, New York and Paris. Yacin is a MBA graduate from the University of Chicago and the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Rouen.

Founding editor of Russia in Global Affairs, journal published with participation of Foreign Affairs. Under his leadership since 2002 the journal became one of the most authoritative sources of independent information on foreign policy and international relations in Russia. He is a research professor at National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He is also research director at Valdai discussion club. In December 2012, he was elected to chair Council on foreign and defense policy (SVOP). He is a member of the presidium of Russian international affairs council. His column appears regularly in FT Exchange blog, The Moscow Times, Russian edition of Forbes magazine, Rossiyskaya gazeta, Gazeta.ru. He graduated from Moscow State University.

Senior Vice President Public Affairs, Total since 2010. Previously, he was Senior Vice President International Relations, Total (2005-2010). He held various positions in the French Administration and abroad as Financial Attaché. He was Deputy Director, Hydrocarbon Division at the French Ministry of Industry (1990-1994). He joined Elf in 1994 as Manager, Middle East New Ventures Division. Then, he held the position of Vice President Middle East Gas & Power, TotalFinaElf and was appointed Managing Director Total E&P Angola in 2002. He is a former student of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration. He graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris and he holds a Master of Law.

Director of the International Centre for Defence Studies (ICDS, Estonia), she previously worked as the Editor-in-chief of the magazine Diplomaatia and hosted the current affairs talk show Välismääraja at radio Kuku. She was also the foreign news Editor of Estonia’s largest daily paper Postimees after having served as its correspondent in Moscow. She has a Master’s degree in Diplomacy from Lancaster University, UK and graduated in journalism from Tartu University in Estonia.

Founder and President of the Louis Bachelier Institute. Member of the Board of Ifri, affiliate Emeritus Professor in Finance at Paris-Dauphine University, Non-Executive Chairman of Les Échos, Chairman and Founder of the Fondation du Risque and Institut Louis Bachelier. He held various positions in the Schlumberger Group and he was CEO of Banque Paribas until the merger creating BNPParibas. He started as a Research Physicist at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). He graduated from the École Polytechnique and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Member of the Institut de France and President of the Geneva Center for Security Policy Fondation Council (GCSP), Jean-David Levitte has had a distinguished and outstanding career in the French Foreign Service. Ambassador Levitte was the Senior Diplomatic Adviser and Sherpa of President Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012. Ambassador to the United States from 2003 to 2007, he was previously Ambassador to the United Nations between 2000 and 2002. He served as Senior Diplomatic Adviser and Sherpa of President Chirac from 1995 to 2000. From 1990, he held senior positions in the French Foreign Ministry, first as Assistant Secretary for Asia and then as Undersecretary for Cultural and Scientific Cooperation. In 1988, he served as the French Ambassador to the United Nations Office in Geneva. When he joined the Foreign Service in 1970, he was first posted in Hong Kong and Beijing. A few months after his election in 1974, President Valery Giscard d’Estaing asked him to work on his staff at the Elysee Palace, where he stayed from 1975 to 1981. Ambassador Levitte earned a law degree and is a graduate of Sciences-Po and of the National School of Oriental Languages, where he studied Chinese and Indonesian.

French industrialist and economist. Founder member of the Académie des technologies (France). President of the Scientific Committee of the Energy Program at Ifri. He was Head of the Economic Department of Charbonnages de France (1954- 1957), CEO of the Sema group (1958-1975), Director of the OECD Interfutures Project (1976-1979), Head of the Department of Economics at Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), Paris (1976-1996), Director of Le Monde (1991-1994). He graduated from the Ecole polytechnique and the Ecole des mines de Paris.

Member of the supervisory board at Naftogaz of Ukraine. Former Senior Executive Vice-President of EDF and member of the newly set-up EDF’s Group Management Committee. He was Deputy Chief Financial Officer of EDF in charge of treasury, financing and M&A. He was Chairman & CEO of London Electricity plc, which he developed into what became EDF Energy plc. He was Director of EDF Generation and Engineering. In charge of the development of the EDF’s group gas businesses, he negotiated the cooperation agreement signed with Gazprom. He graduated in Engineering (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris), in Economics (Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique) and in Political Science (IEP, Paris).

Bernardino León Gross is the Director General of the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy. He is a veteran diplomat with a career spanning over 27 years. He has served as the UN Special Representative and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya. Previously, he was the European Union SR to the Southern Mediterranean, Secretary General at Spanish prime minister Office and Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs. His career has focused on mediation and negotiations, covering also intercultural dialogue, security, energy and migration. He founded with Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim the Barenboim-Said Foundation. He has worked in different Human Rights initiatives, particularly in the Arab world. He played a key role in the EU “peace team” delegation that followed the Oslo process. Following the events of the Arab Spring, he mediated crucial talks in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. He holds a diploma in International Relations from the University of Barcelona and a degree in Law from the University of Malaga, Spain, and followed post graduate courses at London King’s College and Sorbonne University.

Member of the Board of Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue; of International Law Institute (Washington, Kampala); Chairman of the Board CARE Austria. He was Special Envoy for Africa of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria (2005-2010). He served as Permanent Representative of Austria to OECD, Paris (1982-1993). In 1978, he entered the Cabinet Office of Federal Chancellor Dr. Bruno Kreisky with responsibility for foreign relations; he was sherpa for the preparation of the first North-South summit in Cancun (1981). He entered the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1965. He studied Law and Political Science in Graz, Bologna (Johns Hopkins) and Chapel Hill (N.C., US).